Emergency Preparedness Tip for Pets

May 6, 2011

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Emergency Preparedness Tip for Pet Food

In trying to prepare for the unexpected, we naturally tend to focus on what the family needs. Food, water, safety, medicine are all apart of that collection. But what about the family pet's needs? We may have thought about having extra packages of dog food, or kitty litter in our planning, but what about their medications? Like many animals, my German Shepherd is on a special food that we have to order from the veterinarian. When emergency situations strike--like what happened to us during the hurricanes in Florida a while back--getting human food shipped in was a challenge, much less my dog's food and medication! It was weeks before the routine shipment of special food was delivered to our vet.

Since dog and cat food can be contaminated by pests and rodents just storing it in the bag it came in is insufficient. We have taken to ordering extra bags of food from the vet whenever we put an our order, then we seal that extra dog food in airtight food quality buckets with oxygen absorbers. It means having to store more buckets and cans, but we have the peace of mind that our four-footed friend will be healthy--and able to protect us if the need ever occurs.